When asked how he stays grounded, during a talk for his show “Derek” with Joy Behar at Paley Center for Media, Gervais said, “Honestly, if I am grounded, it’s because I became famous when I was 40. I feel sorry for kids like Bieber, really I do, because he doesn’t have a chance to not be like that.” Gervais continued, “I think we forget he’s a kid, not so much now, but he was a kid and he’s going to make all his mistakes in public. It’s like, I feel sorry for teenagers on Facebook. We all do stupid things when we’re teenagers and they’re gone now . . . but for this generation, they’re not gone, they’re there forever.”

When the talk turned to the topic of using a sex tape to become famous, Gervais cracked that if he made one, “It wouldn’t go well. Forty [YouTube] hits. They might think it was a wildlife video. Greenpeace was saving something.”